President Arroyo has named actor and line producer Ronaldo “Ronnie” Naldo Ricketts as the new chairman of the Optical Media Board (OMB), Malacañang announced on Wednesday.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Ricketts assumed the post vacated by fellow actor Edu Manzano since August following his resignation.  “Ronald Naldo Ricketts has been appointed as the chairman of the Optical Media Board,” he told in his weekly press briefing.

The OMB, which replaced the Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB), is responsible in regulating the manufacture of optical media in all its forms and has power to slap stiffer fines and penalties to those who illegally reproduce such products.

Apart from Ricketts, the President has six other appointments, which include Anthony Golez as Undersecretary of the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS); Renato Velasco, member of the Board of Directors, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP); Ernesto Punzalan, member of the Board of Directors, Philippine Reclamation Authority of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Masli Quilaman, executive director of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

Gina Lynn Graellos-Angeles and Arturo Clemente Medina were named as Senior State Solicitors of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). (Charissa M. Luci)